DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency that toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported. Abu Qasra sat next to Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, in photos published by SANA.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said earlier this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army. Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government, with no plans announced for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was once part of al-Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until it went on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away. Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week, saying his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development, with no plans to engage in new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on December 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule. Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al-Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times, and left cities bombed to rubble, with an economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
